The effects of buoyancy forces on liquid-liquid displacement processes occurring in porous media are important in a variety of practical situations, in particular during the displacement of oil from partially-depleted underground reservoirs by means of aqueous solutions. Most previous studies involving the visualization of water/oil displacements in porous media have been undertaken in horizontal two-dimensional porous medium cells. The objective of the present work was to determine the effects of buoyancy forces; on the fingering pattern and oil recovery by conducting immiscible displacement experiments in two-dimensional consolidated porous medium cells aligned in the vertical plane. In order to obtain a clear understanding of the favourable and unfavourable effects of buoyancy forces, experiments were carried out in three different flow modes, namely horizontal, vertical upward, and vertical downward. As the effects of buoyancy forces are negligible for two-dimensional porous media in the horizontal flow mode, the recoveries obtained in this mode were used as a reference for comparison with those obtained in the two vertical modes. Displacements using five different density ratios were studied. The breakthrough time and percentage oil recovery were measured in each case. The effects of buoyancy forces, viscous forces, and capillary forces, as well as the injection flow rate, were also recorded. The results obtained indicate that the effects of buoyancy forces are very pronounced at low flow rates and low oil/water density ratios, and that even a slight increase in the flow rate causes the buoyancy forces to rapidly become less significant.

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